Svjetlana mlinarevic
Journalist/ Photojournalist
 2014 FloodResidents of the Hoop and Holler area were on high alert on July 5 after the province declared a state of emergency due to rising water levels in the Assiniboine River. The army arrived on July 4 to help with sand bagging. (Svjetlana Mlinarevic/The Graphic/QMI Agency) |  2014 floodSoldiers from CFB Shilo arrived on July 4 to make sand bags in the Portage la Prairie yard on July 5. About 200 homes from Portage to Headingly were designated to receive flood protection. (Svjetlana Mlinarevic/The Graphic/QMI Agency) |  2014 floodPortage Emergency Services along with local Hutterite colonies helped build aqua dams in the Hoop and Holler area on July 5 after the province declared a state of emergency due to rising water levels in the Assiniboine River. (Svjetlana Mlinarevic/The Graphic/QMI Agency) |
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 2014 FloodPortage Emergency Services along with local Hutterite colonies helped build aqua dams in the Hoop and Holler area on July 5 after the province declared a state of emergency due to rising water levels in the Assiniboine River. (Svjetlana Mlinarevic/The Graphic/QMI Agency) |  2014 floodPortage Emergency Services along with local Hutterite colonies helped build aqua dams in the Hoop and Holler area on July 5 after the province declared a state of emergency due to rising water levels in the Assiniboine River. (Svjetlana Mlinarevic/The Graphic/QMI Agency) |
Hoop and Holler residents angry
The Graphic/Herald Leader/Winnipeg Sun
April 16, 2014
Hoop and Holler residents have one message for Premier Greg Selinger: Stop flooding us.
Since the province announced it might make a controlled breach at the Hoop and Holler bend, area residents have been livid.
“Selinger is an a----- and an idiot,” said one resident, whose home is located about 100 metres from the bend and was flooded during the 2011 breach.
“If they want to keep flooding my land, I want them to buy it from me.”
The resident has been living near Hoop and Holler for 30 years and said 2011’s breach not only damaged her property, but it damaged her land with silt deposits.
“Nothing can grow here because of it,” she said, adding she has only been compensated for 75 per cent of her claim.
Further down the road from the bend, local lawyer Danny Kreklewich said he and his wife chose to construct their half-a-million dollar home in the area five years ago because they felt it was “protected and secure.”
“It sounds like we’re now Manitoba’s third floodway. I don’t think that they can expect us to take it on the chin again, and again, and again. I think the likelihood of a lawsuit is 10 times greater this time,” he said.
Kreklewich said his property value has dropped, a sentiment echoed by other area residents.
“We’ll never get our money out of it now. They’ve screwed us and there’s not much we can do about it,” he said.
During a press conference on Saturday, the premier said he sympathized with Hoop and Holler residents.
“It’s a tremendously stressful experience for anybody in the Hoop and Holler area that’s in the inundation zone, so I totally appreciate where this individual is coming from ... We’re only going to use the Hoop and Holler as an absolute last resort and we’ll have troops and volunteers in there as soon as possible to check homes and property,” said Selinger.
Residents also had concerns that Saskatchewan wasn’t taking any responsibility for controlling flood waters coming into Manitoba, why the province doesn’t construct a more permanent solution to the Hoop and Holler bend to divert water, and specifically why the government doesn’t make a breach in the Poplar Point area to flood pasture land instead of making a cut at the bend.
During a press conference on Saturday, Premier Greg Selinger didn’t have an answer when asked about Poplar Point as a possible flood plain by The Graphic.
For now, residents can only wait and see if the bend will be cut and hope for the best, according to Eric Turko, whose father owns the property directly across from the Hoop and Holler bend.
“We got a bit more notice than last time,” he said as Portage Emergency Services erected aqua dams around his home. “I somehow think that it will be OK ... We can wish for the best is all I can say.”
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